


blood still stains when the sheets are washed

by luckysam78



Series: 30 weeks of writing prompts [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, First Meetings, Gambling, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Graphic Description of Corpses, M/M, Murder, Organized Crime, Party, Songfic, Suspicions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-27 22:50:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20768246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckysam78/pseuds/luckysam78
Summary: c.c. has a sneaking suspicion that ricky is hiding something from him [or the five suspicious signs c.c. noticed about ricky](Week 1 of my 30 weeks of prompt challenge; dice and playing cards)





	blood still stains when the sheets are washed

**Author's Note:**

> heavily based on this song lyrics:  
“blood money, blood money  
how did you afford this ring that i love honey?  
just another shift at the drug company  
he doesn’t think i’m that fucking dumb does he?”  
“Sippy Cup” by Melanie Martinez

Ever since his teenage years, C.C. never liked parties all that much. The glamour of it all, the loud music, and the messy drinks never really appealed to his interest, but C.C. agreed to attend Francesca’s party as he knew she would probably murder him if he didn’t attend it. Francesca had questionable morals and a sketchy life but C.C. firmly separated his personal life from his work life. Every detective had a friend who occasionally committed crimes and got away with it, right?

C.C. wasn’t having the best time at her party and frankly, it was a little boring to have to make small talk with some mutuals he didn’t know well After a few drinks, he transitioned from talking to people to playing card games with strangers (drunk Tinsley was much bolder than sober Tinsley would ever be). He sat at a table with a dim light hanging over it and his long legs still reached the ground, even though he was sitting on a barstool. There were dozens of red solo cups on the table and he was surprised that nobody had knocked over any drinks during their games.

They played a variety of different card games, including poker, and C.C. was still sober enough to notice that a particular person was winning every single game and suspiciously, that person was always the one to shuffle the cards. He couldn’t recall the person’s name but as the person began shuffling the cards, C.C. asked loudly, “Hey, uh, shuffle guy! What’s your name again?”

“Ricky Goldsworth,” The person answered, raising an eyebrow at C.C.’s unruly volume. He continued to shuffle the cards nonchalantly, his fingers moving swiftly as he skillfully bent the cards. As inebriated C.C. was, he still took note of how oddly familiar Ricky was with the cards, which was seeming like he had spent the majority of his life just playing card games.

“Ricky! You’ve been shuffling the cards all night and you’ve been winning every single game! I think there’s something fishy here,” C.C. could hear the slight slur in his own words and he knew that he was too drunk to be taken seriously. The other people playing didn’t seem to think so as they laughed uproariously at his remark and Ricky cleared his throat as he placed the perfectly stacked and shuffled deck of cards in the center of the table.

“There are no such things as coincidences in the world, Tinsley,” Ricky commented mysteriously and C.C. couldn’t decide whether that remark was seductively mysterious or meaninglessly deep. Either way, the way Ricky’s eyes glinted mischievously after talking made C.C.’s heart skip a beat. The party had started to die down and eventually, the people who were avidly playing the card game moments earlier left. 

The detective was too intoxicated to make good decisions so of course, his night ended with hooking up with Ricky because a) he was insanely attractive and b) there was so much unresolved romantic tension between them and C.C. could never let anything remain unresolved.

The morning after, C.C. expected Ricky to disappear mysteriously but Ricky didn’t leave. He and Ricky never really discussed what happened as their relationship sort of took off from there. At first, it was a casual relationship where they went on a few dates and then, their relationship strengthened and they began spending more time with each other.

Despite C.C. sharing a large amount of information about himself, he still didn’t know much about Ricky. But in a way, he liked the mysterious sheen of Ricky’s personality so when Ricky brushed off any specific questions about his past, C.C. didn’t push farther. However, C.C. did learn that Ricky worked at a drug company but somehow managed to live a somewhat luxurious lifestyle.

After a few months of dating, C.C. decided to ask Ricky to move in since Ricky was basically already living with him. Many of Ricky’s belongings were already in C.C.’s house so the move was relatively easy and quick. For some reason, C.C. didn’t really process the fact that Ricky was going to be moving in with him until he gave his boyfriend a key to his house.

“Now, you better not lose this or else you’re going to be in big trouble,” C.C. half-joked as he handed his boyfriend the key. When Ricky received the key, he broke into his signature charming grin as he took out his keychain that had his car keys and attached the house key to the keychain. 

As he held up the keychain, Ricky proudly announced, “Don't worry, if it’s attached to my car keys I won’t ever lose them.”

When Ricky held up his keychain, C.C.’s detective senses flared when he noticed that there was a small gold dice charm attached to the keychain. C.C. would have brushed it off if the gold dice was plastic and coated in fake gold paint but the charm appeared to be made out of pure gold as it had scratches on the surface but no paint or other colors had been revealed from the scratches.

“Hey, is that a gold dice charm? It looks cool,” C.C. asked casually, pointing to the dangling charm. His mind was racing as he tried to connect the dots to find a logical explanation. There was no way Ricky could afford to buy a charm made out of pure gold if his only source of income was working at the drug company.

“Oh, a friend gave it to me for my birthday. It’s just a good luck charm. Hey, do you want Thai food for dinner tonight?” Ricky asked, smoothly switching the topic away from the charm as he put his keychain back into his pocket. The charm wasn’t mentioned again for a long long time after that interaction.

Living with Ricky was a dream but as time passed, C.C. started to notice more suspicious things happening. For example, there would be black cars that would constantly drive past their house and sometimes, they would park for a couple of seconds and C.C. could feel whoever was hiding behind those dark tinted windows staring at the house before driving away. He hoped that he was just being paranoid and that these signs didn’t mean anything but it happened too often to be a coincidence. 

One day, C.C. returned home from work early and he saw one of the black cars that often drove by their house parked in their driveway next to Ricky’s car, occupying C.C.’s parking spot. The detective parked his car next to the sidewalk in front of his house and since the curtains were drawn, C.C. couldn’t see who was inside the house. He had a hunch that there was a conversation going on inside the house that he wasn’t supposed to hear so he entered through the back door quietly.

As he gently closed the door behind him, C.C. heard the soft lull of a hushed conversation in the living room floating through the air and after removing his shoes, he carefully walked closer to better hear what the conversation was about. The people were speaking in deep, low voices, which made it hard to distinguish words, but C.C. heard the words “money”, “delivery”, “job”, and “deadline”. He was approaching the living room and getting closer to hearing the conversation but he tripped over a fallen letter and made a loud noise. 

C.C. swore under his breath, cursing his clumsy behavior as the conversation halted to a stop and he heard somebody stand up and start moving towards where he was standing. He held his breath and when he saw that it was Ricky who walked out of the living room. His boyfriend had a frown on his face as he asked, “What are you doing here? I thought you were coming back later.”

“I got off work early. What’s up with the black cars in the driveway? Also, who are you talking to?” C.C. tried to move past Ricky to take a look at who was in the living room but Ricky blocked him smoothly. 

“Nobody important. Just dealing with some business. They’re leaving now anyway. Stay here,” Ricky instructed and C.C. nodded. When Ricky slipped back into the living room, C.C. broke his promise as he shuffled closer to the living room, trying to get a good look at whoever was in the living room without being too obvious about it. There were two or three men dressed in all black and wearing sunglasses that Ricky was talking to and C.C. was unsure whether they were government officials or outlaws.

Ricky murmured something to the men and the men nodded before leaving the house. C.C. quietly returned to his earlier position so when Ricky walked out of the living room, C.C. didn’t seem like he moved at all. The detective knew that if he pressed for answers, Ricky would divert the subject. And even though this was clearly a red flag, C.C. decided to yet again give Ricky the benefit of the doubt.

A few weeks later, Ricky surprised C.C. with an extravagant gift. Although he didn’t seem like one, Ricky Goldsworth was one of the biggest sweethearts C.C. had ever met. So, of course, on their one year anniversary, Ricky bought C.C. a gift.

They were sitting at the dinner table when Ricky took out a small bag and placed it in front of C.C. with a giant grin on his face. C.C. gasped delightedly and took the bag off the table, carefully placing it in his lap as he looked inside to find a small box. He took out the small black box and opened it to reveal a stunning red and silver ring.

“Just to clarify, it’s not a wedding ring. I would’ve spent more if this was a wedding ring. This was just a tiny gift I wanted to give to you,” Ricky explained nonchalantly as C.C. examined the ring. The ring was rather thin and delicate but the red ruby seemed to pop out against the silver band. Ornate vine patterns were carved into the ring and C.C. deducted that this ring was handmade and probably costed a fortune.

“How did you afford this ring, honey?” C.C. asked incredulously, still trying to comprehend how expensive the ring was. With a large jewel, hand-carved intricate designs, the ring must’ve been at least ten thousand dollars, which was definitely out of Ricky’s budget.

“Oh, just another shift at the drug company. It’s not a big deal. It’s not that expensive anyway.” Ricky casually replied, taking a sip out of his wine glass. C.C. eyed his boyfriend suspiciously, uncertain of whether Ricky was joking or actually trying to convince C.C. If he was trying to convince C.C., it was definitely not working as only an idiot would believe that an extra shift could cover the cost of this exquisite piece of jewelry.

Before C.C. could probe any further, Ricky quickly brought up the new topic of buying a new car and C.C. brushed any thoughts about Ricky’s behavior into the corner of his mind. The detective did end up wearing the ring often and as a result, he received a lot of questions about it. With each question asked about how much the ring was or who gave him the ring, C.C. was reminded of how shady the whole situation was. But then again, it wasn’t a big deal, just like the men in black, and C.C. didn’t want to make it seem more important than it was. 

However, C.C. wasn’t able to make any more excuses once he found a dead body in the bathtub. Once again, the detective had returned home early from work and he was surprised that Ricky wasn’t home yet as he usually arrived earlier than C.C. did. 

C.C. wasn’t looking to snoop around to find anything Ricky was hiding but a dead body lying face down in a bathtub was sort of hard to miss when you were using the bathroom. When C.C. first saw the body, he had a moment of frozen shock as he stared at it in dismay, uncertain about what to do with the bloody corpse in the tub. He had no clue how it got there in the first place but he had a very strong suspicion that Ricky was associated with the dead body. 

The blood was already caking in the body and C.C. carefully inspected it the best he could without touching it. He was examining the stab wound on the person’s bad when he heard Ricky coming in. Instead of pretending that there was no problem present like he had always been doing, C.C. decided to confront Ricky.

“Hey sweetie! How was your day?” Ricky called out as he entered the house and walked towards the bathroom. C.C.’s heart rate quickened as he heard his boyfriend walk closer and closer and when Ricky opened the bathroom door, his mouth fell open in a surprised “O”. “It’s not what it looks like.”

“Ricky, can you please just explain what’s going on? I’m kind of tired of you brushing aside all these weird things you do. You owe me an explanation.” Looking Ricky in the eye while saying that was one of the most difficult tasks C.C. had ever done and he had solved hundreds of murders. Ricky sighed and he nodded in defeat, closing the bathroom door behind him as he stepped in.

“Where do you want me to start?” Ricky, normally warm and caring, started to display signs of defensiveness as he crossed his arm after anxious running his hands through his hair. 

The detective sat on the edge of the bathtub, where there was thankfully no blood, and thought for a moment before answering. “Start from the moment we met. When you were shuffling the cards. I couldn’t help but notice you were really good at shuffling cards.”

“You really do pick up on everything, huh?” Ricky smiled slyly at C.C. and C.C. couldn’t help but crack a small, proud smile at his skills. “Well, obviously, I don’t work at a drug company. I sort of deal with criminals. I did most of my connections when I was in Vegas over games of Poker so I learned how to play cards well to impress potential business partners.”

“And the golden dice?” C.C. raised a questioning eyebrow and Ricky leaned against the sink, tapping the side of the counter with his fingertips.

“I won the golden dice in a game of blackjack and to this day, the guy who I won it from still contacts me,” Ricky’s pride was starting to reveal itself in his voice. Even though being a criminal was nothing to be proud of, Ricky somehow managed to make doing dirty business seem like he was a famous actor rising to fame.

“What about the men in black?”

“Oh, those guys.” Ricky casually picked up a loose coin lying near the sink on the countertop and began fiddling with it mindlessly. “They were business partners. They gave me a task to do and they offered a lot of money for the job.”

“Which is what you used to buy the ring,” C.C. filled in the blank and Ricky nodded, placing the coin down on the countertop as he locked eyes with C.C. again.

“That’s right. They paid upfront since they’ve been working with me long enough to trust me so u decided to buy a small present for you. It didn’t cost too much compared to what I earned.” As Ricky spoke, C.C. glanced down at the breathtaking ring on his finger and realized that he was never going to be able to look at the ring again and not associate the deep red ruby with blood.

“What’s this about then?” C.C. gestured to the dead body and Ricky sighed, pursing his lips a bit. He clearly was fine with sharing everything but this. 

“He’s just a job. I needed someplace to put the body and I thought you weren’t going to come home early. Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of him.” Ricky flashed his signature smirk and C.C. hated the fact that that one simple gesture was enough to make him blush.

“You know I could technically call the police right now and you could be convicted with countless crimes, right?” C.C. asked loosely as he stood up to his full height so he was towering over Ricky. Ricky didn’t seem threatened at all as he calmly leaned further back against the counter and looked up at C.C., his classic smirk still on his face.

“You could. But are you going to?”

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr[@luckysam78](https://luckysam78.tumblr.com/)! my bfu sideblog is [@tinsley-goldsworth](https://tinsley-goldsworth.tumblr.com/)! comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!


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